This whole trip has been and will be an eye opener - an opportunity to grow as a person and expand my horizons.
While that has its implications in my life as a whole, there are things I'm seeing clearer and clearer as time goes on.
First, as it has been for many years and always will be - I am mature beyond my years and because of that making friends with people my own age will forever be difficult. Just need to get over this fact and cherish the friends I do have that share the same values as I do.
Second, I want to be a domesticated woman. I'm talking cooking, cleaning, organized, mom - no that doesn't mean I'm giving up my career - I just value a clean house with creative food dishes and things that have a specific place.
Third, in regards to above - I want my apartment. I love living with mis padres, but I can't wait to have my house that I can do with as I like and do the things I want to do when I want to do them. However, realistically I'll probably live at home until I get married to save money and because I really don't wanna live with a roommate and I don't wanna live with my boyfriend or fiancé before the wedding. I wanna be able to say "Hey let's go to our house", not oh it's just another normal night.
Fourth, my closet. I haven't grown since probably 5th grade. And all of my clothes in my closet are the same things that have been there since high school. And it really just dawned on me that in a year I will be graduating from college. Scary thought right? But I really need to work on my wardrobe - get some things that are going to do me good for the next couple years. Only problem is I'm gonna be poor by the end of this. Other problem - all of my current clothes are getting beat to shit here.
Fifth, I finally did something I said I was going to do a long time ago - signed up for ballet class, with Spaniards. Won't be starting until January, but it'll be a good opportunity to meet some people and practice more.
Sixth, I may be starting to teach english for my host cousin. She's 7 and super cute. We will see what happens.
That's all for now. Gonna go try and find dinner and shower and do homework and get room put back together. I'm a mess as always...
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Here's To The Things I Hate The Most
Today has just been one of those days where nothing is going right and I'm just really frustrated. Here's a summary...
- Spending a weekend in Barcelona with someone I'm not very fond of. Now wish I would have just waited and gone in the spring with Yvette. Feel like there's a bunch I missed out on because I honestly couldn't stand to be around said person any longer.
- Having my homework all messed up because in Spain the luxury of printing in your own home doesn't exist. Sent an online news article to the reprografía, yeah apparently you can't do that so I didn't have my homework done for class today because I couldn't print out the stupid thing.
- People that know you speak English before you even open your mouth. Then proceed to talk to me in their horrible english that I can't understand a word of, and eventually ask them to talk in Spanish because I can understand them better, yet they still don't listen.
- Understanding gramatical concepts perfectly on paper, yet not having the ability to use them in speech.
- Forgetting simple words that you really need to know right at the moment you need them.
- Clingy people.
- Bitchy people.
- Cliques.
- Not having class with Spaniards.
- Feeling like I'm not learning the stuff I want to know to help me in life.
- Missing my family.
- Being in a grumpy mood.
Sigh. Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be better.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
It's Time To Huelga!!!
Kind of like in Bridesmaids when they're in the plane and Annie is drunk and says, "It's time to parrrrtaaayyy". She annoys everyone on the flight to the point where they're miserable.
The huelgas are kind of like that, except without being funny.
All joking aside, today was the national huelga - the national strike. And while the normal strikes are annoying, today was especially annoying. No one went to work or to school - except for the US students who are obligated to go. So this morning as I'm getting ready to leave my family is having a nice breakfast, all still in their pjs.
"Por qué tienes que ir a la uni hoy Kari?" preguntó mi hermano. "No tenemos que ir al colegio."
Yes, thanks for reminding me, again.
This morning wasn't bad - except for the part where the train stopped for 20 minutes between two stops.
This afternoon however was another story. My train was 30 minutes late, then there were about 200 people stuffed in my car. Lovely. At least my house is only 2 stops away from school.
Let's hope all is back to normal tomorrow.
The huelgas are kind of like that, except without being funny.
All joking aside, today was the national huelga - the national strike. And while the normal strikes are annoying, today was especially annoying. No one went to work or to school - except for the US students who are obligated to go. So this morning as I'm getting ready to leave my family is having a nice breakfast, all still in their pjs.
"Por qué tienes que ir a la uni hoy Kari?" preguntó mi hermano. "No tenemos que ir al colegio."
Yes, thanks for reminding me, again.
This morning wasn't bad - except for the part where the train stopped for 20 minutes between two stops.
This afternoon however was another story. My train was 30 minutes late, then there were about 200 people stuffed in my car. Lovely. At least my house is only 2 stops away from school.
Let's hope all is back to normal tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Pepe y El Rostro
Sunday I went with mi tío Pepe (He's Eva's brother and is 29) to El Rostro.
Every Sunday in Madrid, Spain's biggest flea market takes place. Though, it's not the type of flea market I would normally think of. We walked around and it was crazy. I could barely move, but according to Pepe, there were very few people there.
We didn't buy anything, but I want to go back and get a purse and some scarves. They were way cheaper and very pretty!!
After that we went to a few restaurants to get some lunch. At the first we had some tostadas and at the second, some tacos. We talked a lot, so it was great for me to practice my spanish. I only made one big mistake during the conversation, in which I was attempting to say that whenever my friends go out they get drunk, but accidentally said whenever they go out they get pregnant. (which in the states is a valid argument for some of my friends) Oh well, it happens. He laughed and we continued talking about movies and traveling and other randomness.
He said if I ever wanted to go out with Spaniards him and his girlfriend would take me and introduce me to their friends. Sounds good to me. Better than spending every waking hour in Sol.
Every Sunday in Madrid, Spain's biggest flea market takes place. Though, it's not the type of flea market I would normally think of. We walked around and it was crazy. I could barely move, but according to Pepe, there were very few people there.
We didn't buy anything, but I want to go back and get a purse and some scarves. They were way cheaper and very pretty!!
After that we went to a few restaurants to get some lunch. At the first we had some tostadas and at the second, some tacos. We talked a lot, so it was great for me to practice my spanish. I only made one big mistake during the conversation, in which I was attempting to say that whenever my friends go out they get drunk, but accidentally said whenever they go out they get pregnant. (which in the states is a valid argument for some of my friends) Oh well, it happens. He laughed and we continued talking about movies and traveling and other randomness.
He said if I ever wanted to go out with Spaniards him and his girlfriend would take me and introduce me to their friends. Sounds good to me. Better than spending every waking hour in Sol.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Rain Rain Go Away
It's been raining for what I swear has been 40 days and 40 nights.
Ok, seriously. I haven't seen this much rain in Madrid yet. I'm a small person, so when it rains and there is water, I tend to become a mud pie. Water up to my knees, wet feet, frizzy hair, the hole mess. So today in an effort to solve my problem (and especially after seeing what Venice looks like when it rains), I went and bought my first pair of rain boots as an adult. Let me tell you, it's like love.
On that note, the end of my first semester is quickly approaching and I can't believe how fast it is going. This last month has been filled with travels and November and December will be the height of it all. I think I'll be gone about every other weekend from here on out.
Next semester though, I'll be making some changes. While there is still a decent amount of money in my checking account, I don't have many trips planned for next semester. I'd like to come home with some money, and I'd like to spend more time in Spain.
Right now I'm kinda at a crossroad. I feel like this whole time I've been sitting at this point and I really just have to get over it and move forward. To be honest, this experience has not been what I expected. I wanted to be surrounded by the language all the time and meet and make friends with Spaniards. I wanted to come home at the end of this speaking fluently. Realistically, I don't see it happening at this point. While I know my Spanish has improved, I don't feel like I'll get to come home as strong as I had hoped. I've also found out that I really don't like living in a big city, and I still am not accustomed to being here and still find it frustrating on a daily basis.
This semester has been my "see the world" semester. I've traveled and will be traveling to many places most people only dream about seeing. But at this point there aren't any places that are really calling me, and I can't rationalize going somewhere just to say I went. So next semester I'm planning on spending more time here, getting to know Spain and the culture better, practicing my Spanish as much as possible.
Hee Haw...that's my sound of the moment for not knowing what else to say.
I'm ready to see my family and novio. I miss them and I want to share this adventure with them.
Ok, seriously. I haven't seen this much rain in Madrid yet. I'm a small person, so when it rains and there is water, I tend to become a mud pie. Water up to my knees, wet feet, frizzy hair, the hole mess. So today in an effort to solve my problem (and especially after seeing what Venice looks like when it rains), I went and bought my first pair of rain boots as an adult. Let me tell you, it's like love.
On that note, the end of my first semester is quickly approaching and I can't believe how fast it is going. This last month has been filled with travels and November and December will be the height of it all. I think I'll be gone about every other weekend from here on out.
Next semester though, I'll be making some changes. While there is still a decent amount of money in my checking account, I don't have many trips planned for next semester. I'd like to come home with some money, and I'd like to spend more time in Spain.
Right now I'm kinda at a crossroad. I feel like this whole time I've been sitting at this point and I really just have to get over it and move forward. To be honest, this experience has not been what I expected. I wanted to be surrounded by the language all the time and meet and make friends with Spaniards. I wanted to come home at the end of this speaking fluently. Realistically, I don't see it happening at this point. While I know my Spanish has improved, I don't feel like I'll get to come home as strong as I had hoped. I've also found out that I really don't like living in a big city, and I still am not accustomed to being here and still find it frustrating on a daily basis.
This semester has been my "see the world" semester. I've traveled and will be traveling to many places most people only dream about seeing. But at this point there aren't any places that are really calling me, and I can't rationalize going somewhere just to say I went. So next semester I'm planning on spending more time here, getting to know Spain and the culture better, practicing my Spanish as much as possible.
Hee Haw...that's my sound of the moment for not knowing what else to say.
I'm ready to see my family and novio. I miss them and I want to share this adventure with them.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Mi Puente en Polonia
I really need to make an update video - both for the week and a Spanish update because it's been forever since I've done one of those...
So let's go back to the weekend. It was a puente (awesome!!), that's when a holiday falls on either a Tuesday or a Thursday, so you have a 4 day weekend.
I spent Thursday packing and getting everything together to leave for Poland, then my friend Yvette and I went into the city and found the restaurant "Tierra Burrito" - the Spanish version of Chipotle. I finished up my packing, had some dinner, skyped with Keith, then around midnight headed over to Yvette's house.
Our flight left at 6:40 Friday morning, and since we had to arrive early, the metro was closed, so we stayed at Yvette's because we could walk to one of the 3 bus stations that run all night to the airport. We didn't sleep since we had to leave around 3:30am. This was my first experience flying Ryanair, and let me tell you, it was an experience. If you aren't sure what I mean-Ryanair is a really cheap airline (we're talking around 35-90 euro tickets), but because of this there (of course) are downsides. Mainly, you do not have assigned seats, so as soon as they open the gates it is a mad rush to get on the plane so you can sit next to the people you are traveling with. I'm normally not anxious when flying, but this made me crazy. Oh well, that aside, I survived and successfully passed out before our plane even backed away from the gate. I woke up about 10 minutes before we landed in Kraków, so that was a great flight.
From this point, my weekend got interesting...
Freak Out Number One: The hotel preauthorized my credit card before we checked in...for $1,500 more than the bill. I think I spent the first 4 hours on the phone with different banks and customer service representatives trying to figure out what was going on. Luckily, on Monday when we checked out, the manager finally said they had made a mistake and fixed it.
Freak Out Number Two: My ATM card would not work in Poland. Even after my loving family figured out how to break into my bank account and transferred more money into my checking account.
So with both of those things to worry about, my weekend continued...
Saturday, we went on a trip to Auschwitz. I don't really know what to say. In my opinion, I thought it was amazing, but I can't really say that about something so awful without sounding demented. It was just very interesting and a moving experience. It was interesting to see the differences between the museum in the US and in Poland just because the people in Poland in the actual camp have much deeper connections and opinions about respect and how we need to reflect on the Holocaust. Without carrying on for forever, I'll mention two things.
1. The point of having Auschwitz as a memorial is because the people that were sent to Auschwitz and the other concentration camps were sent there to be dehumanized. Today we go there because it is our responsibility to remember that these people were in fact people just like us and today we go there to re-humanize them.
2. In the museum in DC there is one of the actual train cars that was used to transport the people to the camps. There, it is open and you can enter it. In Poland, there is another one of these cars, however it is not open. The survivors there believe that it was such a horrible thing to experience that no one should ever be allowed to be in the same position they once were.
Saturday night we went to get dinner at a Hungarian restaurant. Let me say, amazing. I ate chicken paprikash and it was the best thing ever. Made me feel like home with my grandma noodles (except those are better!!) After that we went to a bar and got some drinks (I of course ordered a smoothie, causing everyone else to get their IDs checked) We then were headed home when we ran into what we thought was a promoter, but turns out he was a random German guy with his friends, so we went to a different bar with them. (where I of course drank water all night and was thus the only sober one)
Freak Out Number Three: The point of the night when I had to pee so bad and the bathroom didn't have any toilet paper and had to use the pages of my Kraków guide book as toilet paper. Yes, I felt disgusting. Lesson - always carry tissues with you, always.
Sunday we headed to the Salt Mines, it was cool, but nothing I would recommend to anyone visiting Kraków.
And finally Monday, it rained. So we headed over to the Jewish quarter for lunch before catching a cab to the airport for our 6pm flight back to Madrid.
Without a doubt the best thing about Poland is the exchange rate. For every 1 euro, you get about 4 PLN. Basically, I bought a ton of presents for $30. (That was fun packing my Ryanair approved carryon size luggage...)
Our flight arrived late, so I didn't get home until around midnight. Then I stayed up until 2 this morning doing homework, slept a few hours, got up at 6 to read a book and write a paper about it, and then went to school.
Tired.
Had my visa extention appointment today at the police station, where we had to wait 1.5 hours outside in the cold weather. Turns out, my visa got denied and now we have to go back tomorrow to fix it so I don't get deported.
Lovely.
On that note, I have a ton of homework I need to do. I'll update soon.
So let's go back to the weekend. It was a puente (awesome!!), that's when a holiday falls on either a Tuesday or a Thursday, so you have a 4 day weekend.
I spent Thursday packing and getting everything together to leave for Poland, then my friend Yvette and I went into the city and found the restaurant "Tierra Burrito" - the Spanish version of Chipotle. I finished up my packing, had some dinner, skyped with Keith, then around midnight headed over to Yvette's house.
Our flight left at 6:40 Friday morning, and since we had to arrive early, the metro was closed, so we stayed at Yvette's because we could walk to one of the 3 bus stations that run all night to the airport. We didn't sleep since we had to leave around 3:30am. This was my first experience flying Ryanair, and let me tell you, it was an experience. If you aren't sure what I mean-Ryanair is a really cheap airline (we're talking around 35-90 euro tickets), but because of this there (of course) are downsides. Mainly, you do not have assigned seats, so as soon as they open the gates it is a mad rush to get on the plane so you can sit next to the people you are traveling with. I'm normally not anxious when flying, but this made me crazy. Oh well, that aside, I survived and successfully passed out before our plane even backed away from the gate. I woke up about 10 minutes before we landed in Kraków, so that was a great flight.
From this point, my weekend got interesting...
Freak Out Number One: The hotel preauthorized my credit card before we checked in...for $1,500 more than the bill. I think I spent the first 4 hours on the phone with different banks and customer service representatives trying to figure out what was going on. Luckily, on Monday when we checked out, the manager finally said they had made a mistake and fixed it.
Freak Out Number Two: My ATM card would not work in Poland. Even after my loving family figured out how to break into my bank account and transferred more money into my checking account.
So with both of those things to worry about, my weekend continued...
Saturday, we went on a trip to Auschwitz. I don't really know what to say. In my opinion, I thought it was amazing, but I can't really say that about something so awful without sounding demented. It was just very interesting and a moving experience. It was interesting to see the differences between the museum in the US and in Poland just because the people in Poland in the actual camp have much deeper connections and opinions about respect and how we need to reflect on the Holocaust. Without carrying on for forever, I'll mention two things.
1. The point of having Auschwitz as a memorial is because the people that were sent to Auschwitz and the other concentration camps were sent there to be dehumanized. Today we go there because it is our responsibility to remember that these people were in fact people just like us and today we go there to re-humanize them.
2. In the museum in DC there is one of the actual train cars that was used to transport the people to the camps. There, it is open and you can enter it. In Poland, there is another one of these cars, however it is not open. The survivors there believe that it was such a horrible thing to experience that no one should ever be allowed to be in the same position they once were.
Saturday night we went to get dinner at a Hungarian restaurant. Let me say, amazing. I ate chicken paprikash and it was the best thing ever. Made me feel like home with my grandma noodles (except those are better!!) After that we went to a bar and got some drinks (I of course ordered a smoothie, causing everyone else to get their IDs checked) We then were headed home when we ran into what we thought was a promoter, but turns out he was a random German guy with his friends, so we went to a different bar with them. (where I of course drank water all night and was thus the only sober one)
Freak Out Number Three: The point of the night when I had to pee so bad and the bathroom didn't have any toilet paper and had to use the pages of my Kraków guide book as toilet paper. Yes, I felt disgusting. Lesson - always carry tissues with you, always.
Sunday we headed to the Salt Mines, it was cool, but nothing I would recommend to anyone visiting Kraków.
And finally Monday, it rained. So we headed over to the Jewish quarter for lunch before catching a cab to the airport for our 6pm flight back to Madrid.
Without a doubt the best thing about Poland is the exchange rate. For every 1 euro, you get about 4 PLN. Basically, I bought a ton of presents for $30. (That was fun packing my Ryanair approved carryon size luggage...)
Our flight arrived late, so I didn't get home until around midnight. Then I stayed up until 2 this morning doing homework, slept a few hours, got up at 6 to read a book and write a paper about it, and then went to school.
Tired.
Had my visa extention appointment today at the police station, where we had to wait 1.5 hours outside in the cold weather. Turns out, my visa got denied and now we have to go back tomorrow to fix it so I don't get deported.
Lovely.
On that note, I have a ton of homework I need to do. I'll update soon.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Where is the Time Going?!
It's been a long time without a post. Sigh. I'm trying lol.
Lets start with Sunday - My Birthday! 20 years old, and it was defiantly the oddest birthday celebration ever. My host family was gone for most of the day, so I spent the day doing homework and watching like 4 movies. But they came home that night and got me a present-a really nice wool scarf, and we sang and had some birthday doughnut-type things. Although here they blow out the candles before they sing, so my host brothers got to my candles first.
Moving on to Monday - most exciting day of the week. My host family got a puppy!! She's 10 weeks old and is a golden retriever. My host brothers wanted to name her Charlie, but the guy who had the puppies already started calling her Dama, so we just stuck with that name. (Dama means "special little lady") She's super cute and very laid back. Inside the house she just likes to sleep and lay under the coffee table, but outside she doesn't stop running and playing.
Wednesday - Halloween! It's very different here than at home. Not very many kids here trick-or-treat but we had a party at the house. It was all decorated and the kids had their friends over. Everyone in the house had to be dressed up - I was a vampire with bright red hair. Three groups of kids came by and my host mom scared them. The first group she told she was gonna eat the children. The second group we wouldn't let up the stairs, so we were answering the intercom in all of the different languages the people at the party spoke (Spanish, English, Galego, and French). Eventually we made them send one kid in the group up alone so they could scare him. And then the final group, they made a kid cry, so we gave him pizza because they didn't have candy.
And now, it's Thursday - and I'm packing to go to Poland. I've got my Ryanair approved luggage, so hopefully it meets the weight limit. I've got some warm clothes and boots and my camera and hopefully everything I need. We're going to Krakow to visit Auschwitz and the Salt Mines and whatever else we can find.
So yes, I am off! Will attempt to update when I get back Monday night =D
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